Richard Matheson Planning New Adaptation Of His Sci-Fi Classic, The Shrinking Man

Amongst the films of Jack Arnold are Creature From The Black Lagoon, It Came From Outer Space and The Incredible Shrinking Man, all of them sitting quite happily in my movie collection, and all seemingly quite ripe for a modern-era do-over.

No big surprise, then, that MGM are planning a retelling of the latter, going back to the original Richard Matheson novel, The Shrinking Man. The twist is that Matheson and his son, Richard Matheson Jr., are going to write the screenplay.

Meanwhile, MGM’s president promises that the Mathesons have “cutting edge ideas” for the remake. Matheson Sr. gives some sort of clues as to what the film might have on its mind, saying:

My original story was a metaphor for how man’s place in the world was diminishing. That still holds today, where all these advancements that are going to save us will be our undoing.

Will they? I don’t know about that. But then, I’m not 86. I’ve got a lot of getting old and bitter and scared of change growing up to do.

Amongst the advances to be treated with suspicion in this new story will be nanotechnology. Of course. It’s going to destroy us all in our sleep. The gray goo is coming.

Still, while I might not be on board with the film’s point of view, it doesn’t mean I won’t appreciate and enjoy what we’re shown from this perspective.

As well as everything else, this project will give Ant Man somebody his own size to pick on at the box-office. Quite obviously, though, there’s space for both of them. They might even add up to a nice little double bill.